Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

The second half started with a change of sides, but shortly after the start of the game, the situation suddenly changed on the sidelines. Getafe coach Schuster was asked to go to the stands by the referee Ibanez because he was dissatisfied with the referee's decision and made rude remarks.

This was mainly because in the first 15 minutes of the second half, Barcelona changed its usual practice and adopted a defensive strategy. Although they hardly organized a decent offensive, the game lacked quality. The lackluster game caused dissatisfaction among fans inside and outside the stadium, and also caused dissatisfaction among Getafe's coach, who believed that Barcelona played passively...

So shortly after Schuster was sent to the stands, Barcelona attacked again; and Barcelona's first attack changed the score again!

Schuster, who was sent to the stands, couldn't help but regret: "...Fuck!"

Barcelona extended the lead in the 62nd minute. Ronaldinho's father made a long pass to the left side of Getafe's penalty area in a counterattack. Taking advantage of the gap left by Getafe's forward pressure, Cheetah Eto'o successfully made an offside and selflessly passed the ball to Giuly in the middle. The Frenchman received Eto'o's low pass assist 10 yards in the middle of the penalty area, and calmly shot the ball into the goalkeeper's goal.

After Barcelona changed the score to 2-0, Rijkaard made two substitutions. In the 69th minute, No. 30 Messi replaced No. 8 Giuly as the right winger, and No. 24 Iniesta replaced No. 6 Xavi...

Seeing the two men who had just been bragging and chatting with him on the sidelines while warming up now going into battle together, Ricardo had an expression of indescribable resentment on his face, which made Rijkaard feel uneasy, so he had to turn his head away to avoid the gaze that seemed to be able to burn people...

Not long after Messi and Iniesta came on as substitutes, Barcelona secured victory in the 72nd minute! Getafe center back Matron fouled Ronaldinho to stop him from breaking through. This time Ronaldinho's father gave the set-piece on the right to Motta, who made his first start. Motta lived up to expectations and shot the free kick from 28 yards on the right directly into the upper corner of the near corner...

This set-piece goal was very exciting, and had little to do with the two players who just came on as substitutes. Hahahaha… Ricardo couldn’t help but gloat over it on the sidelines, but in reality he still felt jealous…

However, not long after the goal, it seemed that Rijkaard did not want to frustrate the eager young man, and finally in the 77th minute, he used up his third substitution and replaced No. 66 Motta, who had just scored a goal directly from the set-piece, with No. 3 Li Qi; and let Motta, who had a wonderful performance in this game, receive applause from the audience...

Oh, sorry, this is an away game, it’s good enough that there is no booing…

Then the game reached its climax again at the last moment!

First, Getafe scored a goal in the 89th minute: Getafe midfielder Rivas made a diagonal pass to the front of the penalty area from the right, and the full-back Pernia suddenly appeared in the corner of the penalty area, which was beyond everyone's expectations. The latter received the pass from Getafe substitute striker Gica and volleyed with his left foot from 25 yards on the left. The ball went straight into the far corner like a cannonball... A world wave!

When the game entered the overtime period, Getafe had not given up chasing another goal, but Barcelona seized the opportunity again!

Li Qi, who finally got back to the midfield, made a prediction in advance and intercepted the ball sent by Getafe's Cortero to the front court near the center circle, and then passed it directly to the gap in the defense line! The ball that penetrated the defense line was accurately intercepted by Messi who was offside, and Messi scored a single goal...

After Messi entered the penalty area, he wanted to dribble past the goalkeeper, but he didn't expect that Getafe goalkeeper Luis Garcia did not take the dribble and blocked Messi's way forward... Messi could only hastily shoot with his left foot at a small angle, but it was blocked by Luis Garcia with one hand!

The ball was blocked just in front of the penalty area. Just as Getafe defender Berenguer was returning to defense and was about to control the ball and reorganize the attack... a black shadow flashed by, snatched the ball that was close at hand, and then the Barcelona midfielder with the number 66 on his back easily pushed the ball into the empty goal!

The score was locked at 4 to 1, completely killing the game!

The best player of the game went to Thiago Motta who scored from a set-piece.

……

因为这一轮巴塞罗那的西甲联赛是在11月6日晚上11点结束的，就是周日晚上。于是为了等待里卡多一起返回意大利，基娅拉还特意请了半天假……于11月7日的中午才和里卡多一起前往机场搭乘航班返回米兰……

As for why it was half a day? Because in the remaining half a day, Chiara accompanied Ricardo to exercise in the morning... Oh no, it was to report to Ricardo on the investment of the trust fund. It has reached an agreement with YouTube, which was newly established this year, to invest 600 million US dollars and hold 20% of the shares. Although the valuation is slightly higher than Ricardo's expectations, after all, it is a social video platform that has not yet been officially launched, but it doesn't matter much. It is also good news that she has obtained the priority subscription rights.

As for the remaining Tesla, Tesla and Facebook are also in the process of negotiation, and news is expected to come out around the end of the year. Although both have just completed financing not long ago, who would refuse a high-quality long-term investor like UBS Trust?

Ricardo didn't care about it any more. He just waited for good news and took good care of Chiara... Oh, no, the most important thing is to play football well.

After arriving in Milan, Ricardo and Chiara separated after a long verbal dispute and physical entanglement. One went to the training base to report to the national team, and the other went home to tidy up her messy clothes and then showed up at the outlet...

This time, the Italian national team borrowed AC Milan's Milanello training base for three days of training, and then went to the Netherlands on November 3, the shopping festival, to prepare for the international A-level friendly match the next night.

At 11:12 pm on November 8, the friendly match between the Netherlands and Italy is about to begin.

本届国家集训营，维埃里与托蒂受伤双双退出，但里皮仍将使用4-3-3阵型，与荷兰队的4-3-3阵型针锋相对。

Lippi wanted to test Zambrotta's switch to right back and promote Grosso to left back, while Dutch coach Van Basten focused on newcomers such as Babel and Vlaar.

Since the Netherlands beat Italy 1978-2 in the 1 World Cup, the Orange Army has never won against the Blue Italy, but the Orange Army has remained unbeaten since Van Basten took office. Let's see whether the historical record of the two sides will be rewritten in this round of matches.

For Li Qi who was on the starting bench, there were two club players on the opposite side, one was Van Bronckhorst in the starting lineup, and the other was Van Bommel who was on the starting bench like himself.

Italy's starting lineup is:

Goalkeeper Abbiati;

The back line from left to right is Grosso, Cannavaro, Nesta and Zambrotta;

The iron triangle in the midfield is Camoranesi, Pirlo and Gattuso;

The forward trident is Del Piero as the attacking midfielder, with Gilardino and Luca Toni at the front.

The Netherlands' starting lineup is:

goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar;

The back line from left to right is Van Bronckhorst, Matheson, Vlaar and Kronkamp;

The midfield triangle is Lanzat, Cocu and Van der Vaart;

The forward trident is Castren, hard-working Kuyt and Babel.

Italy players wore black armbands in memory of former Italy coach Valcareggi, who died last week.

……

After the game started, both sides attacked and defended each other, and one goal from each side was disallowed by the referee.

First, in the 10th minute, Kuyt of the Netherlands scored a goal, but was judged to be offside.

Then in the 30th minute, Zambrotta made a cross from the right, and Gilardino made a cross from the middle and scored the ball, but the referee believed that Gilardino had committed a foul by pushing the opponent first.

The live slow-motion replay showed that the ball should be a good one; but there was no way to change the referee's decision.

The game suddenly reached its climax quietly at the last moment of the first half!

In the 38th minute, Castren dribbled into the penalty area from the right and passed the ball to Kuyt in the middle. The latter overpowered Nesta, took the ball with his back and calmly passed the ball to the right. Babel followed up at high speed and shot the ball into the near corner. The Netherlands team scored the first goal!

However, two minutes later, Italy immediately equalized the score: in the 40th minute, Del Piero received a pass from Pirlo in the Piero area on the left, and then directly shot a curved ball with his right foot... The ball hit the crossbar and bounced back into the penalty area, where Gilardino, who had successfully made an offside move, calmly shot into the empty goal.

Then, in the 45th minute, Del Piero took a corner kick from the left, Camoranesi headed the ball back from the front point, and the Netherlands' new central defender Vlaar accidentally scored an own goal. The refraction of his own goal at such close range caught Van der Sar off guard.

2-1, Italy reversed before halftime and the two teams entered halftime.

During the halftime break, the Dutch team made a personnel adjustment, changing the goalkeeper, with Timmer replacing Van der Sar...

Italy had another smooth start in the second half. Not long after the start of the second half, in the 50th minute, Lucatoni used his body to push past Vollar and broke into the penalty area. Vollar, who was knocked down by Lucatoni, could only lie on the ground and watch Lucatoni take a single shot and score from the right side of the penalty area. 3-1, Italy was leading by two goals.

Afterwards, both sides made multiple personnel adjustments. In the 60th minute of the game, Lippi replaced Gilardino with De Rossi and changed to a 4-4-2 formation. In the 69th minute, he replaced Luca Toni with Iaquinta and replaced Camoranesi with Lizzie.

But young coach Van Basten was unwilling to accept defeat. In the 60th minute, he replaced Kronkamp with De Jong and replaced Vlaar, who made many mistakes in this game, with Oye.

After Li Qi came on the court, he did not blindly join the attack. All Italians knew what the Italian team, which was already two goals ahead, should do... Li Qi cooperated with Pirlo and Gattuso to sweep and organize the midfield, stabilize the midfield and control the rhythm while waiting for an opportunity to counterattack!

So starting from the 70th minute, the Dutch team formed an attack but did not pose much threat.

Instead, Italy extended its lead again in the 84th minute.

First, Gattuso intercepted Van der Vaart's pass at the front of the penalty area, and then quickly handed it to Pirlo. Pirlo made a straight pass to Del Piero who retreated to the center circle... Del Piero simply passed the ball and turned around, and after getting rid of De Jong's close entanglement, he made a very traditional pass in the face of the Dutch defense... And this pass was not given to Iaquinta who was at the front, but to De Rossi who came in from behind!

De Rossi, whose defense was led away by Iaquinta, dribbled into the penalty area without being marked by anyone. Facing the goalkeeper who came out, he fell to the ground and passed the ball to the middle!

Switching back to the classic commentary moment of the TV broadcast:

"Clean tackle from Gattuso!"

"After giving the ball to Pirlo, he simply passed it directly to Piero in the midfield..."

"Nice pass! Piero turned around and passed the ball directly to the wing!"

"It's De Rossi! This side is empty..."

"We're about to enter the penalty area! The goalkeeper is attacking..."

"Sideways pass!"

"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"

"Ricardo Richie!"

"Ricardo Richie sprinted at full speed and finally caught up with the ball at the far end of the goal, and shot the ball into the empty goal with a shovel shot!"

"Half a second later, we would have missed this great opportunity to counterattack!"

"The Italian team played an efficient counterattack again and completely killed the game in the final moments!"

The moment Gattuso made the steal, Li Qi started to sprint, and finally at the last moment when the ball was about to slide past the goal, he rushed to the far end of the penalty area, received De Rossi's cross and hit the empty goal!

After the shovel shot, Li Qi rushed directly out of the baseline, but he finally got the ball into the goal. This is Li Qi's second goal for the national team!

After the score was changed again, both sides made their final substitutions. Lippi replaced Pirlo with Diana and Gattuso with Barone. Van Basten replaced Cocu with Boateng and Babel with Hesselink.

In the end, Italy won the international A-level friendly match against the Netherlands national team with a score of 4-1 thanks to this almost last-minute goal.

After the game, the media was still very concerned about this friendly match between two strong teams.

The Times said: "Italy made Van Basten suffer again (Italy maintained an unbeaten record against the Netherlands after this game). The Dutch were too small. Even if Stam was there, he couldn't keep an eye on Toni. Toni was too scary. He created chaos in the Dutch penalty area like a bull breaking into a store. The forward combination of Toni, Gila, Del Piero, and newcomer Ricardo Richie were all very impressive."

The Daily Telegraph gave a high evaluation of the team as a whole: "Lippi's national team is more comprehensive than in the 1994 final, with a solid defense and fast and smooth counterattacks."

"Gazzetta dello Sport" quoted an interview with Pirlo after the game: "Before the game, Lippi said that we should just have fun when we entered the field and treat it as a training session. We followed this instruction and did it. This kind of victory makes me very excited, because everyone is a little afraid of the Netherlands." Then it concluded with a theory: Lippi's Italy combines the psychology of South Americans with the reality of Italy.

Anyway, after the big win, the media will definitely be full of unscrupulous praise...

……

Four days later, at 4 p.m. on November 11, the Italian team faced another international A-level warm-up match in the neutral venue of Switzerland. Their opponent was the Ivory Coast team, which had Drogba, the future star of the Shock Wave, and Kolo Toure, the main central defender of Arsenal during the unbeaten season.

Didier Drogba, nicknamed the Beast, was born on March 1978, 3 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. He is 11 meters tall and weighs 1 kilograms. His muscular body and eight-pack abs are even more abnormal than Luca Toni.

Drogba, who transferred to Chelsea Football Club for a whopping 2450 million pounds (about 4495 million U.S. dollars) last season, is known as one of the best center forwards in world football. He has strong physical fitness and extremely strong explosive power. Once he starts sprinting, it is difficult for any defensive player to stop him.

His football skills are not fancy but practical. In addition, his beast-like impact, cheetah-like speed and superb shooting skills are well-known in the football world. It is said that when he is furious, his eyes are full of primitive flavor.

Kolo Toure, who was born on March 1981, 3, is a typical technical central defender. He is only 19 meters tall, but the fact that he became the core of the defense alongside Sol Campbell in the Gunners' undefeated championship season is enough to show his ability.

……